CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 257 



ON THE ELIMINATION OF CERTAIN POISONS. 



THE following is an abstract of a paper recently read before the 

 French Academy by M. Orfila : 



When a poison has been absorbed and carried into the tissues of a 

 living being, does it remain indefinitely within these tissues ? or is it 

 expelled from them ? In the latter case, in how long a time does the 

 animal economy effect the expulsion ? Finally, in what way is the 

 poison conveyed out ? 



These three questions include all that relates to the diminution of 

 poisonous substances. The experiments relative to the study requires 

 a very long time. In eighteen months I was able to experiment on 

 only four poisonous substances bichloride of mercury, acetate of 

 lead, sulphate of copper, and nitrate of silver. These experiments 

 have taught me that when the above poisonous substances are admin- 

 istered to animals, that mercury disappears in general from the organs 

 in eight or ten days. In only one case I found it to take eighteen 

 days. Lead and copper are found in the intestinal parietes and in the 

 bones eight months after they have ceased to be introduced into the 

 stomach. Silver, whose presence in the liver may in some cases be 

 demonstrated after six months, is not found in any organ of other 



i ^^ 



animals, seven months after the administration of nitrate of silver. In 

 the course of these researches I have seen that lead, copper, and 

 mercury pass into the urine ; but whilst the two former are carried 

 away by the renal secretion, only two days after the administration of 

 the copper or lead compound, the mercury continues to be carried off 

 by this excretion eight days after the introduction of the mercurial 

 preparation. I have never been able to detect silver in the urine of 

 animals which have taken nitrate of silver. 



I beg for a moment to call attention to the applications which may 

 be made by the medical jurist of a knowledge of the elimination of 

 poisonous substances. When I began this work, I had especially the 

 view of facilitating the solution of some problems which might impede 

 or stop the course of justice, if the practitioner did not possess the 

 most precise knowledge on this portion of toxicological physiology. A 

 few examples will suffice to show the benefit to be derived from the 

 study in medical jurisprudence. 



A. An individual who had been subjected to a mercurial treatment 

 by corrosive sublimate, died four months after the cessation of the 

 treatment, being poisoned by a mercurial preparation. The analysis, 

 which is performed by the processes hitherto known, detects mercury in 

 the organs. The defence is able, in consequence of these antecedents, 

 to raise strong doubts, as to the origin of the metal. According to my 

 experiments we can ascertain that the mercury does not proceed from 

 the mercurial medicaments taken four months previous to death ; for 

 after the administration of corrosive sublimate, the mercury does not 

 remain in the animal tissues more that eighteen days. 



B. Should a man survive a poisoning by corrosive sublimate for 

 fifteen days, it is very possible that the chemists consulted in the case 



